"101 Things You Can Do to Save the Animals" -- a Peta book. Probably the hardest book I've ever read. The chapters were short, 1-2 pages only, but each one left me weeping. I was stunned at how all encompassing animal cruelty & exploitation is in our society.

I read it shortly after becoming vegetarian & even though I continued to eat cheese for some years afterwards, I switched to rice milk & I got rid of all my clothes & beauty products that were not vegan.

wow....I wouldn't know where to begin... I read, a lot! I am a research and information guru/seeker, so I try and read as much as possible. (on average I read 1-4 books per week, and about 5-50 articles per day, depending on the time I have to spend..)

A few favorites are:

"The Sexual Politics of Meat- A feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory" -- by Carol J. AdamsThe bibliography in this book alone is almost 20 pages long!This book revealed to me an entire new world of veganism that I wasn't asaware of, like for example.. the cultural manipulation of language topromote acceptablity in food, one of the reasons I believe we experience alarge number of chicken eating veggies and fish eating veggies, is because we drop the word "meat" from what we're really eating.(ie. it's not "chicken meat", it's "chicken", it's not "fish meat", it's "fish")Pretty amazing and profound, highly recommended.

"Vegan: the new ethics of eating" -by Erik MarcusI am a big Erik Marcus fan and promoter of his work(except one articleI read in VegNews lately..), but I think if you want something lasting thatwill help "convert" others to the vegan lifestyle, or for information in general, this book is IT.I give this book to anyone I know who is interested in the veggieway of life, I've probably bought it at least 5 times.He is also a very good writer.

"Beyond Beef- The rise and fall of the cattle culture" -by Jeremy RifkinSpeaking of beautiful writers, Jeremy Rifkin is one of the best.This book is written wonderfully, and is loaded with factual information.He also writes a lot of articles for Organic Consumers, so of course I am a big supporter.

"The Detox Solution - by Dr.Patricia Fitzgerald"By all means, NOT a vegan book.. but very very informative, none the less. I am also a detox enthusiast, & this is one of the better books I haveread on the subject.

"The Top 100 Immunity Boosters -by Charlotte Haigh"Also, not entirely vegan, but 98% of this book is full of herbs, fruits, veggies, etc. It not only talks about all of the beneficial properties offruits and veggies, but it dissects nutrients, and goes in depth on how tocure ailments with food. I have had first hand experience with food being my medicine, and continues to be.. so this book is a definite read for anyone interested in feeling euphoric.

Through darkest America ~Neal Barrett This one isn't for the faint of heart. I got a hold of a copy when I was 12 years old. And although there is no way I could have understood the complexity of the book. I still vividly rememer it. I will be re-reading it as an adult: in a world that nuclear war has almost decimated of cities, technology and large animals. To replace farm livestock, the country's sole source of meat is genetically altered humans, without intelligence or speech.

Sink Reflections ~Marla CilleyTaught me how to painlessly keep my house in check

The Complete Tightwad Gazette ~Amy DacyczynThis one is a bit learning curve for me. But it teaches me to not only save money, but help the environment in the process of less use and creating my own natural cleaning products. My Depression era Great Gram would be so pleased.

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman Simply the best in your face weight loss book I have ever read!

Back when I became a vegetarian, (waaay back!), I found a lot of articles by Victoria Moran (in Vegetarian Times, which used to be less of a recipe magazine than a magazine promoting vegetarianism more actively) really spoke to me. She seemed to be following the same path I was on at about the same time (so they didn't really influence me as much as reinforce what I was feeling).

Thrive is a recent book that has influenced some directional changes in my diet.

Other books are not as much influences (as in causing me to change in some way), but rather reinforce my beliefs:
The Diet Revolution (as well as Robbins' previous "Diet for a New America"), The China Study (T. Collin Campbell), Eat to Live (Fuhrman).

Going way back, I think one story (not a book) that influenced me (because I still remember it) was a short 1/2 column in a comic book!) that was a first person-story from the perspective of a puppy, who loved everyone and had many animal friends, and at the end, there was something about how he didn't understand hatred and not accepting others (other animals, in this case) because (last line).. "you see...I'm blind." Maybe corny, but my impressional pre=adolescent mind thought it was very touching and it brought tears to my eyes.

Diet for a new america is definitely the book that caused me to go vegan. It would be hard to believe anyone on this board hasnt read it yet, but if you havent read it, you should LITERALLY, get up right now, get in your car, and go to the book store. buy both copies of it that they have on the shelf cause you are gonna want to give one to a friend.